Google to Offer Android for Wearables

Google’s Android is the most popular operating system for smartphones. Now Google wants Android to power wearable devices.

Sundar Pichai at a media event in 2013

AFP/Getty

Google executive Sundar Pichai told the South by Southwest conference Sunday that the company plans to release in two weeks a software development kit based on Android for makers of wearable devices, such as smartwatches.

Google plans to release its own smartwatch, which will be manufactured by LG Electronics. But as with the Nexus line of smartphones that Google makes, the company wants to help lay out a “vision” for other developers to power their own wearable devices.

In making it easier for developers to use Android on wearable devices, Google looks set to follow a playbook similar to the one it used in mobile devices, where it makes Android available for free to phone and tablet makers. The software kit might give Google an opportunity to attract developers and bring users deeper into an ecosystem powered by its software.

Pichai is one of Google’s top executives, overseeing the company’s dominant mobile operating system, Android, its fast growing browser and computing platform Chrome, as well as apps like Gmail. He’s also in charge of much of Google’s growing hardware portfolio, including the Nexus smartphone and tablet, the cheap series of Internet-only computers called Chromebooks and other gadgets like Chromecast, which connects TVs to the Internet.

On Sunday, Pichai offered the first hint on Chromecast sales, saying they are “in the millions.” The device was first released in the United States, but Pichai said Sunday Google will soon make it available in more countries.

Pichai said that Google is releasing its Android software developer kit for wearable devices well before actual devices hit the market so that the company gets “plenty of feedback” first. Google plans to unveil its smartwatch at a Google developer event in June, CNET reported last month.

Smartwatches are among the first wearable computing devices, but Pichai said that Google hopes its software platform will help developers create many types of wearable devices. He threw out the possibility that one day, Google’s software would be used in a “smart jacket” with sensors.

Asked about the recent acquisition of smart thermostat maker Nest Labs, Pichai said Google is thinking about creating a “mesh layer” of software to make its various devices work better together.